In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,140 issued Dec. 28, 1971 there is described a pancake-making machine having a heatable drum mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis and, closely juxtaposed therewith, a similarly mounted transfer roller having access to a supply of batter for spreading same over the periphery surface of the rotating drum; this peripheral surface is uniformly cylindrical except for an axially extending recess, or possibly several equispaced recesses, generally subtending only a minor fraction (e.g. about a quadrant) of the drum circumference. With the drum and the roller codirectionally driven, and with the peripheral roller speed at least equal to but preferably somewhat higher than the peripheral drum speed, the batter picked up by the roller is transferred to the drum as a continuous layer until the leading edge of the recess confronts the roller. At this point, the normally narrow gap between the drum and the roller suddenly widens so that the batter adhering to the roller surface no longer reaches the drum but is returned to the trough from which it was taken, the transfer roller advantageously dipping directly into this trough in which the level of the batter is held substantially constant in a manner more fully described hereinafter.
For the most effective transfer in the case of a roller partly submerged in the batter supply, this roller should be positioned next to the lower quadrant of the drum on the ascending side thereof. The hot layer of cooked dough adhering to the drum surface is then stripped off, preferably at or near the nadir of the drum, by a scraper which may comprise a blade resiliently biased thereagainst. The layer so removed may drop onto downwardly sloping transport means such as a chute or a conveyor carrying it, if desired, onto another heated surface for the baking of the hitherto exposed side of the pancake.